Ghana becomes first country to approve Oxford’s malaria vaccine

Category : International Published on: April 17 2023

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Ghana has become the first country to approve a highly effective malaria vaccine developed at Oxford University in the UK.
The R21/Matrix-M vaccine, the first to exceed the World Health Organization’s target of 75% efficacy, has been cleared for use by Ghana’s Food and Drugs Authority in children aged 5-36 months, the group at highest risk of death from malaria.
The university has a deal with the Serum Institute of India to produce up to 200 million doses of the vaccine — known as R21 — annually.
It's the first time a major vaccine has been approved in an African country ahead of rich nations
In Ghana, where the disease is both endemic and perennial, an estimated 5.3m cases and 12,500 estimated deaths were recorded.
Malaria kills more than 600,000 people each year, most of them children in Africa.